BENGALURU: The Hosaguddadahalli area, where there was rioting on Wednesday following an alleged sexual assault on a schoolgirl, is limping back to normalcy. Heavy police deployment in the area turned it into a fortress and caused inconvenience to the local residents.
The police had clamped prohibitory orders as per Section 144 of the CrPC. It will continue till Friday midnight. The orders were in effect in the limits of Byatarayanapura, J J Nagar and Chamarajapet police stations.
Following the riots, all commercial establishments in the area, particularly on the Nehru Road where the incident took place, were closed. Most shops on the Hosaguddadahalli Main Road were also shut.
Locals said that though they had opened the shops in the morning, the police forced to them to down shutters around 11 am, as a preventive step.
Following the incident, the school management has announced that the school will reopen on Monday.
The ground floor of the school has been completely vandalised during Wednesday’s incident. Two other private schools in the area too remained closed on Thursday.
Some local organisations had reportedly planned to hold a silent procession in the area, to condemn the incident. However, no such protests were held as the police had made elaborate security arrangements.
More than 600 policemen, including 10 platoons of KSRP and CAR each, four DCPs and other staff were deployed in the area.
The police had blocked all the four roads that connected the school, where the alleged sexual harassment took place. This caused inconvenience to the local residents. However, the police allowed women and children to move around.
Home Minister K.J. George visited the area in the noon and told reporters that he had met the injured persons, who are undergoing treatment at hospitals.
“The police have made all necessary arrangements so that no such incident will repeat. The situation is completely normal now. The police are investigating whether there was any conspiracy behind the incident.”
